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Genus Apiomerus
Classification Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Hemiptera (True Bugs, Cicadas, Hoppers, Aphids and Allies)
Suborder Heteroptera (True Bugs)
Family Reduviidae (Assassin Bugs)
Genus Apiomerus
Numbers Nearctica.com, Slater (1), and Arnett (2), list 9 species in genus. Identification Variably colored: red with blackish-brown markings or brown with yellowish markings. Dense short hair on head, thorax, and legs. Distance between simple eyes greater than the distance between compound eyes. 2nd antennal segment rather comblike, not subdivided into small ringlike units. Nymph is dark and reddish. Range North America; most diverse in the west. Apiomerus crassipes and Apiomerus spissipes are widespread in east. Habitat Meadows, fields, and gardens. Food Other insects, especially bees. Life Cycle Eggs are attached to foliage. Nymphs, like adults, are voracious predators. 1 generation or more a year in the North. Remarks It pounces on Honey Bees and other pollinating insects. It holds the captive in its powerful legs, thrusts its cutting beak into the victim's back, injects an immobilizing digestive agent, then sucks out the body juices. Print References Slater, p. 122, fig. 220--ill. A. crassipes, description A. spissipes (1)
Milne, figs. 118, 119, pp. 473-474. (3)
Powell, fig. 3g, p. 99 (4)
Salsbury, Insects in Kansas, p. 108--color photos of A. crassipes, A. spissipes (5)Works Cited | 1. | How to Know the True Bugs
By Slater, James A., and Baranowski, Richard M. | |
| 4. | California Insects
By Jerry A. Powell, Charles L. Hogue |  |
| 5. | Insects in Kansas
By Glenn A. Salsbury and Stephan C. White | |
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